Echoes of Wisdom

“Stolen away... across the vast lands of Hyrule, strange rifts have appeared and have taken many people, including Link”

— Trailer synopsis

Echoes of Wisdom
Developer	Nintendo
Publisher	Nintendo
Genre	Action Adventure
Platform	Nintendo Switch
Release dates	September 26, 2024
Chronological Order
Previous	"Tears of the Kingdom"
Map

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is the twenty-first installment in The Legend of Zelda series and released in September 2024 for the Nintendo Switch. It is preceded by Tears of the Kingdom. The Priestess of Legend is the protagonist, and the main antagonist is Null. Tecuums are the villainous faction.

It is the twenty-first installment in the series, and the seventh game in the Downfall Timeline. Taking place many hundreds of years after the era the New Hero of Hyrule, the geography of the land and borders have changed so much, but there are still remnants of the previous eras. The Ganon, Link, and Zelda of this game are all new incarnations who know nothing of each other, and the legend of Ganon's evil is forgotten by this point so much that he is not even referred to by name by the people who live in Hyrule.

Chronologically this game takes place between Tri Force Heroes and Zelda I.

Synopsis

The people of Hyrule are being stolen away by strange rifts that have appeared, and with a certain swordsman among those missing, it's up to Princess Zelda to save her kingdom.

Summary

After defeating Ganon, Link vanishes while releasing Princess Zelda from a crystal with his Bow. With the aid of a Fairy named Tri, Princess Zelda must save the kingdom using the Tri Rod bestowed by the Fairy.

Characters

Princess Zelda

Tri

Link

Ganon

Bosses

Image	Enemy	Description	Dungeon
	Seismic Talus	Seismic Talus is the Boss of Suthorn Ruins. It is a large, humanoid rock Monster that rests upon a ball hinge. It features purple accents reminiscent of the Still World. Seismic Talus attacks with its hands, either by slamming them on the ground to create a shockwave or by throwing its fists at its targets. When it throws its fists, they will disappear and reappear from the ground shortly afterward.	Suthorn Ruins
	Mogryph	Mogryph is the Boss of the Gerudo Sanctum. It takes the form of a half-mole, half-gryphon creature.	Gerudo Sanctum
	Vocaver	Vocavor is a large aquatic Monster that has many Tris sealed inside of it. It is the Boss of the Jabul Ruins. Vocavor can create waterspouts to attack its prey.	Jabul Ruins
	Ganon	Inside Hyrule Castle, Ganon begins the fight with two strategies. His first strategy is to teleport around the room and lunge at Princess Zelda with his Trident. After attacking, he is briefly vulnerable to a counterattack. His second strategy is to teleport and then twirl his Trident while facing Zelda, leaving his backside exposed for attack. In both situations, Zelda can use Bind to take the Trident out of his hands, although he will quickly teleport away after this.	Hyrule Castle
	Gohma	A Gohma appears as the Boss of the Faron Temple. It is a large six-legged arthropod with an Eye on its back and green Electrical crystals on its legs. After Rifts started appearing in the Faron Wetlands, the local Deku Scrub population began harvesting the spider webs created by the Gohma in order to create candyfloss. This leads to a conflict of interest for the Deku Scrubs, whom begin hoping for more Rifts (which they refer to as Dark Thorns) to overtake the region so they can obtain more candyfloss. This results in them being unwilling to let Zelda access the Rift containing Faron Temple in order to destroy the Gohma and save the region.	Faron Temple
	Volvagia	Volvagia's arena consists of several platforms interspersed throughout a pool of Lava, and it will emerge from one of several locations to attack. One of its main attacks is creating a large green fireball, which slowly follows Princess Zelda but can easily be avoided. It can also loose several normal fireballs, which are much faster than the green kind. During either attack, the green jewel on its necklace is exposed, granting Zelda an opportunity to grab and pull it with Bind. If Zelda successfully breaks the jewel, Volvagia will be temporarily stunned and open to attack.	Eldin Temple
	Skorchill	Skorchill is a white-furred bipedal ape Monster that can attune to both Fire and Ice by wearing a pair of Masks. It is the Boss of the Lanayru Temple.	Lanayru Temple
	Null	Zelda's quest to destroy Null involved unlocking the path to the Prime Energy. Null was able to take advantage of this by creating an echo of Zelda, in an attempt to trick the Prime Energy into bestowing its powers upon it. While the Zelda Echo is able to access the Prime Energy before the real Zelda can, the Prime Energy is not deceived by Null's plan; shattering into thirds; only one of which is granted to Null, with the other two granted to Link and Zelda. In a final confrontation, Zelda and Link set out to destroy Null, with Null setting out to destroy the pair to obtain their thirds of the Prime Energy.	Null's Body

Title Screen

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

Media

International Media

Echoes of Wisdom boxart

Echoes of Wisdom boxart

Trivia

• This is the first mainline Legend of Zelda game where Zelda herself is the main protagonist.
  • There have been plenty of other games in the series with her as the protagonist, like Wand of Gamelon, Zelda's Adventure, as well as games where she is playable like Spirit Tracks and Hyrule Warriors, but this is the first mainline entry where she is the actual playable protagonist.

• The Nintendo Switch Lite - Hyrule Edition is set to release on the same day as Echoes of Wisdom.
• This game uses the same engine and artstyle as the Link's Awakening Switch remake, meaning it is emulating the feeling that the GameBoy Zelda games had at the time. This means that this game is the first time a proper new Zelda game has been done in the same stye (as LA, and the Oracle games) in 13 years. It also continues the trend of Super Mario enemies appearing in the game, and 2D segments where Link or Zelda can platform.
• Echoes of Wisdom is the first top-down The Legend of Zelda game in which the main character can move in full 3D. In other top-down games, Link's height above the ground was restricted to only a few possible values, if he could be above the ground at all.
• The main antagonist of this game, Null, has almost the exact same backstory as a similarly named character, Knull, from Marvel Comics. They are a primordial being that existed in the darkness long before time had a name, who existed to destroy any light that tried to exist in his void but is later sealed inside a planet (Hyrule / Klyntar) in order to stop him from creating more darkness. In Zelda's case, Null was sealed beneath Hyrule by the Golden Goddesses when they created the land.

Continuity

• Echoes of Wisdom officially takes place in the Downfall Timeline between Tri Force Heroes and Zelda I.
  • There are many clues in-game that tell us the placement and give us an idea of how Hyrule has changed between games.
    • Geography wise, Hyrule Castle, the plains, Lake Hylia, and the eastern hills appear in the same location of the A Link to the Past Hyrule map, meaning that this is the same Hyrule but changed over hundreds of years.
      • The Hyrule map in this game is expanded and altered since it's last appearance. Locations from ALttP/ALBW return in this new iteration of Hyrule, this time in ruin as it has been a few hundred years since those games. The Desert Palace appears in the Gerudo Desert region in ruins, in the exact spot it was in in the previous era, as well as the Eastern Palace.
      • This Hyrule is expanded, with a volcano in the Eldin region now to the far west, and a beach area in the south, which means they have expanded the border between games (leading into Zelda Is map, which is larger than ALttPs.)
      • The southeastern region is named the "Faron Wetlands" in this game, meaning that the theory that the southeast was once Faron Woods makes perfect sense, and connects even more to the larger idea that it was once connected to Lake Floria, which is why that area shifts between wet and woods.
    • Ganon's design matches that of the one from the games centered around A Link to the Past with some slight differences. Due to this Ganon being an Echo, he is clearly an Echo of the Ganon from the previous games. The current status of the real Ganon being unfused with Yuga remains unknown.
    • Many races appear in this game that previously did not appear in the Downfall Timeline previously, such as Deku Scrubs, Deku Babas, and ReDeads.
      • Races like the ocean Zoras also appear for the first time since the Oracle games in this title, appearing in Hyrule for the first time canonically since Ocarina of Time, timeline wise. It's possible that following Hyrule's return to grace post-ALttP, the ocean Zora's returned to Hyrule from Labrynna.
      • Impa also appear in this game for the first time chronologically since Ocarina, which leads into Zelda I nicely since Impa is in that game and its sequel as well.
      • The Gerudo make their first and only appearance in the Downfall Timeline in this game, after being wiped out pre-ALttP (turning the Gerudo Desert into the barren Desert of Mystery.) It is unknown what caused their resurgence here and their disappearance in Zelda I and II.
        • However, it would explain who was around to name Nabooru Town in Zelda II if there were Gerudo alive to name it.
      • Gorons return for the first time since the Oracle games as well and could have followed the Zora back to Hyrule during the large time period of peace between Zelda I and A Link Between Worlds.
      • The Deku race also return for the first time since their brief appearance in the Oracle games.
    • Rueberry is a new character introduced in this game; he is Impa's brother.
      • This is the first time Impa is shown to have any blood family relation in a game.
• At the end of the Eldin Temple, Din tells the story of Null, a being from the primordial void that existed long before Hyrule was created. It is explained that before the Golden Goddesses arrived, Null lived in the void and wiped out any and all life that sprung up. Farore, Din, and Nayru created the heavens and earth to seal Null forever, however, he would create rifts in the ground in order to bring the world back to his primordial chaos.
  • This is the first time a game has delved deeper into what exactly the world was like before the Goddesses arrived, making Null the oldest character in the entire franchise.
  • Null himself tells Zelda that since then he has been trying to claw his way out from beneath the earth, which finally explains where Demise and his demons came from in the pre-history of Skyward Sword. Where originally it just said that he came from the earth, now we have a reason as to why, finally.
• The regions of Lanayru, Faron, and Eldin are explained to be sacred places where the three Golden Goddesses, Nayru, Farore, and Din left behind energy known as "Prime Energy" (which is later revealed to be the Triforce.)
  • This is the first time that the mythological significance of these names is ever brought up, since their introduction in Twilight Princess, the names of these regions and their connections to the Golden Goddesses has never been made outright known.
  • At the end of each dungeon in the three regions the Golden Goddesses themselves speak to Zelda. This is the first time in any Zelda game that the Golden Goddesses themselves have spoken.
• Lord Jabu-Jabu makes his first appearance in a game since Oracle of Ages, making this his second appearance in the Downfall Timeline. Volvagia also appears, for the first time since Ocarina of Time.
• The Master Sword does not appear in this game, meaning that the end of ALBW where it says the Master Sword will slumber forever remains true, as since it is not in this game nor Zelda I or II.

Gallery

Echoes of Wisdom KV as it was announced

Echoes of Wisdom title

Echoes of Wisdom THE END